


By the Example of their Mothers

by Mara



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, Multiverse Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-12
Updated: 2010-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two great women...two troubled mothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By the Example of their Mothers

**Author's Note:**

> These two canons don't go together in the slightest. Just handwave along with me, okay? In ST canon, this is a few years before "Journey to Babel" and in the Vorkosigan Saga it's a few years before _The Warrior's Apprentice_. Ish. (This was originally a fic for Multiverse 2010, but it wasn't completed in time.)

Cordelia wanted to push aside the crowd of diplomats in order to find her quarry, but years of practice allowed her to slide through without (much of) a ruffle. And she didn't even trip over the dress, she thought wryly. There was a time when Alys had despaired over that.

As she politely nodded to various of her husband's allies--and a few of his enemies--she continued to search the milling crowd until...there!

It took five more minutes but she finally stood in front of the ordinary-looking woman who had come with the ambassador from Vulcan. The woman turned with a polite smile, but when she focused on Cordelia, her eyes sharpened into what looked like real interest.

"Lady Grayson?" Cordelia asked, although she knew the answer.

"Indeed. Amanda Grayson, lately of Earth but now of Vulcan," the woman said with a smile. "And you must be Lady Vorkosigan."

Cordelia gave a small bow and held out her hand. "Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, lately of Beta but now of Barrayar."

"I am very pleased to meet you," Amanda said.

"As am I. I had hoped..." she still wasn't quite sure what she was asking.

"That we could talk about topics of mutual interest?"

Cordelia let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, exactly. Perhaps tomorrow you could come for tea?"

"I would love to."

* * *

Tea began cordially, if boring. Cordelia gave the ambassador's wife a quick tour of the mansion and they discussed recent Barrayaran history. To no great surprise, Amanda had obviously done a great deal of reading before arriving on the planet.

Cordelia suspected they were both sizing each other up and it was a question of who would crack first. "I think," she said, putting her cup down with excessive force," we have a great deal in common."

"I agree," Amanda said. "Stubborn husbands, for example."

Cordelia's laugh threatened to become a very undignified snort. "Very much so."

"Not that men ever _consider_ themselves stubborn."

"Oh no, surely not. They're simply being..."

"Logical!" the two women said together.

They chuckled, both fiddling with their cups.

"It is...unsettling to be a woman of two worlds, I think," Amanda said eventually.

Cordelia chuckled. "I can tell you're a diplomat, because 'unsettling' is a much nicer word than I was considering."

"Frustrating?"

"Aggravating," Cordelia countered.

"Infuriating."

"Oooh, I like that one. Sometimes I just want to walk into a room and start bashing heads together."

"At least you'd get a reaction if you did that. There are few things as annoying as a raised Vulcan eyebrow."

"Yes, Aral would probably have a bit more to say than a raised eyebrow. Although it's possible that depending on the heads I bashed, he might very well agree."

Amanda smiled. "But the most difficult part, of course..."

"Is our sons," Cordelia finished.

"Yes." Amanda bowed her head.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Still peering into her teacup, Amanda nodded. "Sarek and Spock haven't spoken in 15 years."

"Oh dear." Cordelia winced.

"They fought, well, not that either would use that word, over Spock's career choice and that was that."

"Stubborn, hmm?"

"Pig-headed, I might have said." Amanda smiled faintly.

"I know the feeling."

"Spock..." She paused, searching for the words, and Cordelia sipped some more tea to give her time. "He tried so hard to be the perfect Vulcan, to the point I thought it might kill him."

Wincing, Cordelia nodded. "That's also familiar. Miles is so, I was going to say fragile, but that's just his bones and it does him a disservice. His mind and will are tougher than I've ever seen and he's determined to be more Barrayaran than even his grandfather, risking everything to become a soldier."

"Yes. A soldier. I fear for Spock. His life, his soul."

"If he can't balance his two sides." Cordelia felt tears pricking her eyes and she swallowed hastily.

Amanda patted Cordelia's hand. "I know. I understand."

"I know you do. This place...Barrayar...what it does to children who are 'normal' is nothing short of barbaric. And Miles, I have visions of his wonderful beautiful mind chewed up and spit out."

"Yes, Vulcan, for all its vaunted logic is unkind to those considered imperfectly Vulcan. A half-human by, oh, there was so little I could do to protect him." It was Amanda's turn to be near tears. "And he left but he still desires to be Vulcan so much that I fear what he might do."

"There is so little we can do." Cordelia dashed away an escaped tear with a vicious swipe of her hand.

"Maybe we can give them a little of our strength to take with them."

Nodding slowly, Cordelia looked at her visitor. "Teach them what we can of straddling two worlds."

"And teach them to love aspects of both."

"And love them with all our hearts," Cordelia said.

"And love them with all our hearts." Amanda agreed.

\--end--


End file.
